Legacy: LoveDeathHonor
by Sync.am
Summary: On October 10th, Kushina Uzumaki nobly sacrificed herself for the greater good of konoha, and sealed half of the nine tailed fox with her in death. Minato Namikaze made a decision that day, he would be there for his son and his village. Follow Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze's journey through love, death, and honor. AU: Minato lives after Kyuubi attack and raises naruto. Gritty/Realistic
1. My Son

Quick Note: The Scroll of Seals in this Universe is a scroll containing documentation of every jutsu (including forbidden jutsu) known to shinobi, so ya.

My Son

Overlooking the village hidden in the leaves, a young boy with the name Naruto Namikaze sat on one of the great stone faces. In particular, the fourth hokages great stone face.

"Hey Dad?" The young Namikaze asked looking up towards his beloved father.

"What is it Naruto?"

"Why do I have to pretend like I'm not your son?"

Minato looked at his boy with a sad grin. He didn't expect Naruto to understand at such a young age why his heritage must be kept a secret, but nevertheless it had to be nailed into his head at a young age. "Naruto, there is nothing more that I want than to proudly announce you as my son, but if I did you would be an easy target for all my enemies. You would be in danger, and if anything were to happen to you...I don't even know what I would do to myself."

Minato thought back to the promise he made to his wife. He did not intend to lose Naruto as a son, or for Naruto to lose him as a father.

"I think I understand...but I wish I could tell people how cool my dad is.." Naruto pouted looking out upon the village.

A small hand wrapped around Minatos fingers and Minato let himself truly smile. Narutos face wore a familiar expression of slight anger and nervousness as he looked down across the village Minato had protected countless times. Words could not express how much he cared for his little boy.

"Don't worry son. As soon as I am confident you can take care of yourself, we won't have to hide it anymore." Minato explained hopeful of the future.

"Alright dad, I love you!"

"I love you too...I will always love you..."

—-

'I have to do this'

Weaving the signs for the reaper death seal Minato prepared to die for his newborn son. He would not let his son perish in the ninetails wrath, and he would not let his village be destroyed either.

"No Minato!" Kushina called out as he rounded his last sign for the seal.

Stopping abruptly Minato looked towards his dying wife and nearly broke out in tears at her condition. Kushina lied there half naked and completely exhausted from both childbirth and restraining the ninetails. Not to mention she just went through losing the ninetails from that mysterious masked man.

"Please... please Minato...I'm already dying so let me take him with me. Please," Kushina cried out as Minato ran towards her trying to support her nearlifeless body, "Let me do this Minato, just promise me, please, stay here with our small Naruto and let him grow up with his father. I know how it feels to be parentless and he cannot be alone... please."

Minato bit his lower lip and looked down trying to stay strong for his wife. Pulling himself together Minato looked up at Kushina. He gave her a solid nod as tears broke through the metaphorical dam sourrounding his eyes.

"I promise you, I will."

...

Minato watched as the love of his life gave away hers to seal half of the nine tails. Her hands formed the familiar seals and her chakra chains slowly retreated back into her body. Her head turned towards his, and her mouth slipped into a grin before her body slumped to the ground, finally giving out after all of the feats she had pulled that day.

'...my love...'

His head shook realizing that now was no time to sulk, he had to return to being a shinobi, being a hokage, being the father to his child and his people. Pushing his depression down for the time being, he jumped back towards his son now sitting in the middle of a ritual center.

'...I hope I'm doing the right thing here...'

Minatos mind lingered back to a conversation his loyal sensei Jiraiya had with him only a few weeks prior to now...

—————————————

"Listen Minato...I've been meaning to tell you something for a while now." Jiraiya explained as he sipped his cup of tea which had turned slightly cold from the cool breeze of the fall.

"Yes, Jiraiya sensei."

"A fair amount of years ago, while I was training at Mount Myoboku just like you. I had received a prophecy from the great elder toad."

"A prophecy?" Minato asked confused, as he had never heard of any prophecy from his sensei before.

Minato's mind flickered with thoughts of the great elder toad, for someone of that stature to tell his sensei a prophecy, it had to be important.

"Yes, I was told throughout my journeys I would find a child that would bring great change to this world. No guarantee of it being good or bad, but sure to bring great change. I had found three young students years back who unfortunately died. I convinced myself one of them, a young boy named Nagato who possessed the Rinnegan had been that child of prophecy. Of course I was wrong as he died before anything changed. To get to the point I'm starting to think you might be that child." Jiraiya finished placing his cup of tea on the arm of bench the two had been sitting on.

"You really think so?" Minato asked not sure if to believe in his sensei or to trust his gut which told him he was no such child of prophecy.

"Grim as it may be, my body has seen younger days. I'm confident I'll live another thirty or fourty years as long as I'm careful, but..."

"But your not confident you'll find the child you speak of." Minato finished his thought as Jiraiya heaved a heavy sigh.

"Minato, your the hokage, and the strongest shinobi alive that I know of, if it's not you then that prophecy might be a false one."

———————————————-

Minato recalled having a hunch that he was not the child his sensei had spoken of. Call it not a hunch but a feeling, a feeling that although he may have the power and the position, he was not the one who would bring a change great enough to be prophecized by the great elder toad.

Not having enough time to contemplate, his hands naturally sped through signs like it was a natural motion. As the nine tails flew towards Minato his lone finger was just evaded by an overpowered rasengan. With a flash, Minato placed the seal on the young Naruto, sealing the leftover half kyuubi into his son. Before he could think a kyuubi's claw dug straight through his chest narrowly missing Naruto.

— ————————-

Minato's eyes shot open in distress as he sat straight up in his bed. Sweat beating down his forehead, a small urge to vomit came to him which was quite quickly suppressed.

He surveyed his sourroundings, finding himself in his room alone in his bed. Shinobi instincts kicking in, his hand reached behind him to pull a kunai out of his tool belt, only to find he wasn't wearing it. Realizing he was safe, Minato sighed wiping some of the sweat dripping from his face.

'Damn these nightmares'

Nightmares were a common occurrence to him since that faithful night. For some reason they all ended the same way, with him dying. He knew it wasn't what really happened, of course it wasn't, he had survived and kept his promise to Kushina. Still, for some reason the dreams alway got it completely accurate up until the point he died.

'Hope I didn't wake Naruto up'

Deciding to go check and get a glass of water while he was at it, Minato leapt from his bed and teleported down to the kitchen. His flying Raijin came in handy in more ways than one.

Grabbing a glass of water from the fridge, Minato surveyed his rather large home. There were no signs of Naruto being awake, so Minato (choosing to not be lazy) walked up his staircase back to his room. Passing by Naruto's, he noticed his light was on faintly covered by his closed door.

'Crap I did wake him'

Slowly creaking open the door Minato was met with a sight that was rather peculiar. Naruto was hunched down on the floor, his hands holding open a scroll, all while simultaneously murmuring to himself the words written down. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to get a closer look at what his son was doing.

Jumping to the sealing, Minato walked upside down towards Narutos direction. As he got closer his eyes skimmed the scroll he had been looking over profusely. His eyes widened as he read what was on its pages.

Naruto had somehow gotten his hands on the scroll of seals...

'How the hell...'

Out of nowhere it came back to him, he remembered bringing Naruto to the office one day and left him there when he had to discuss something with Shikaku Nara his advisor. How could he leave the Scroll of Seals out in the open like that, and how did Naruto bring it home without him noticing?!

Bringing his hands to a familiar seal, the young boy screamed out, "_Bunshin No Jutsu!!" A weak little blob poofed onto the floor, and then poofed out of existence._

"Oh come on!!!" Naruto squeezed out through gritted teeth, "Why won't it work!?"

Minato looked at his son with amusement and slight confusion, he knew how much chakra Naruto possessed and theoretically a clone should not be much trouble at all. Even with his worried thoughts, the yondaime couldn't help but crack a smile at his tomatoe faced son. He would have to do something about that temper of his, it could be rather detremental if his anger got the better of him in a fight.

That aside, there still the problem of Narutos current struggle. Naruto being half Uzumaki, the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tailed Beast, and **_his_** son should mean that he has a substantial amount of chakra. So why is a simple clone giving him so much trouble. Pondering it for a moment, Minato finally decided to let his prescense be known to the young fox.

Jumping from the sealing, Minato landed square in front of Naruto. "Hey there you little thief!" He exclaimed with a grin causing Naruto to quite literally topple over himself backwards.

"D-D-Dad! What are you doing here?!" Naruto questioned as he stood back up looking a small bit frightened.

"What are **you** doing with the scroll of seals?"

"Uhmmm, about that,"

"Shut it. I probably should punish you but since you were able to sneak it home I'm going to let it slide. This has to be returned to my office Naruto, if this got into the wrong hands it would—"

"NO!" Naruto yelled cutting off his father, "y-you can't!"

"...why not?" Minato asked looking a little annoyed. Sure his son was stubborn but, come on, even he should know how insanely important this scroll was.

"You don't understand!" Naruto yelled back lacking the volume, "I need to learn jutsu! The kids at the playground already know how to do clones and I can't even make a single one! I need to prove to them that I'm strong!" Narutos eyes began to grow glossy, and before Minato realized, small tears broke through.

Minato looked at his son with a longing expression, had kids been really picking on him. Did he feel inferior to them? His son? Questions of if his parenting had been good enough without Kushina started to light in his mind but they were quickly extinguished as stray tears turned into small whimpers.

Rushing forward Minato enclosed Naruto in the biggest bare hug he had ever given. Little hands clutched onto dampening white fabric, and small sobs filled the quiet night at the Namikaze house.

"I don't understand it," Naruto cried, "I've been trying for days and I still can't do it! Maybe the kids were right, I'm just a worthless wannabe, I'm too bad to be a shinobi!"

Minato's hands grabbed Narutos face smushing his baby fat and tears together like a messy plate. Deep concern showered his face. "Naruto! Never, and I mean NEVER, talk like that again. You are not worthless! You are not a wannabe! And you are more than capable of becoming a shinobi! Naruto, you are my son, and no son of mine will ever let bullies get to them." Minatos face softened as Naruto began to stop crying, he hadn't expected a breakdown like this, let alone to hear his everything was getting bullied by other kids. It was times like these he wished so dearly that announcing that Naruto was his child wouldn't come with so many negatives.

Naruto hugged his father once more and Minatos arms wrapped around his small body. His mind lingered back to what Naruto said, he had been trying the clone jutsu for days and hadn't been able to do it. That was concerning. Something like the Kage bunshin would be more understandable but a simple, normal, non physical clone? Naruto should have been able to do one within the first day of practice, atleast from what he had seen with Naruto's little temper tantrum.

"Naruto, promise me you won't let those kids get to you. Your better than them in every way possible and you should never let them have the satisfaction of seeing you hurt from their words. Ok? Promise me."

"I promise dad," Naruto replied squeezing his father extra tight once more before pulling away. His face now stained with tears, Naruto began rolling up the scroll.

"Hold on Naruto," Minato stooped him, "I think I know why you were having so much trouble with your clone jutsu there."

Narutos face, mixed with confusion and curiosity, instantly lit up as he shuffled over to his dad. "Really? Why?! I've been trying so hard..."

"Take your shirt off and lie down on your bed, I have to take a look at your seal."

Naruto did as he was told and Minato began channeling chakra through the seal that sat on top of Narutos belly. Analyzing it thouroughly, Minato came to a conclusion. "Your problem has nothing to do with the kyuubi." He announced receiving a weak face plant from Naruto.

"What could it be then?"

After taking a few minutes to think, Minato realized he had missed something crucial during his thought process. "You have too much chakra."

"What!" Naruto yelled looking extremely worried, "What's gonna happen! Am I gonna die!"

"No! Your not gonna die." Minato quickly said shutting down Narutos fears. He moved closer to Naruto on the bed and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "You have so much chakra, it's hard for you to perform such a low level jutsu that requires barely any chakra." He finished with a touch of pride that his son would have this type of problem out of any. His eyes glanced back to the scroll of seals, wondering if a stray idea may be worth a shot.

"What could I do then?" Naruto asked with heavy confusion. His eyes followed his dads and even more confusion grew in his mind. "What are you looking at? What can I do?"

Minato took the time to think. He had an idea, probably not the best idea, but it was an idea. If he played his cards right, he could raise an extraordinary fighter. Not that that was his goal, but if one day he wanted to announce Naruto as his son, he would have to train him well.

"Naruto do me a favor and get that scroll for me." He said causing Naruto to jump up from his bed, in the second Naruto was facing away from Minato, he flashed away with flying raijin and returned without ever making a sound.

"Here you go dad! What's that?" Naruto asked enthusiastically. Minato held in his hand a small journal with a pencil. A hint of wonder glistened in his eyes.

"Naruto, I want you to find 15 jutsu that you want to learn. It could be any 15, and you can find them all in the scroll of seals. Then, write them down in this journal. Afterwards put the scroll and the journal outside your door and go to bed. Tomorrow morning we are going to start your training." Minato explained to a gleaming six year old. This is what Naruto had been waiting for, a chance to become stronger and make everyone achknowledge him. He was tired of being thrown to the side as some useless kid.

"Alright dad! I'll start right now!"

Minato gave Naruto a quick hug reminding him to pick the jutsu that really interested him and to not rush into picking the first ones that catch his eye. There were hundreds upon hundreds of jutsu to choose from and it was important Naruto really thought through his decisions. Obviously Minato wasn't going to just teach Naruto these jutsu all at once, that would be both irresponsible and most likely impossible depending on which jutsu Naruto chose. It's not like he didn't want to teach Naruto all of these jutsu, it's just those would come with time. First Naruto would have to do some calligraphy and chakra control training. Minato wasn't completely sure of his plan, but what he did know was he was going to have a long night of planning ahead of him.


	2. The Scroll

_Before I start anything, thanks for the reviews! I would like to mention if your going to review pointing out spelling errors I will not go back and change it. I write from my phone in my spare time and I believe in evolving as a writer. I would like to go back one day and read my earlier chapters and see how I've improved. So it's not going to help anybody pointing out grammatical errors and spelling mistakes._

_That being said I love the criticisms and feedback (plot/character wise) I am trying to stick to the characters personality's but they may change as I develop them in this AU. _

_Also one thing about my writing is I like to set things up and explain them later on. For example one review mentioned on why can't Minato just get ANBU to guard him. _

_A) I explain that in this chapter_

_B) Minato is much more protective of his son in this story, he promised Kushina he would be there for him. _

_Don't be so quick to judge is all I'm trying to say. _

_Thanks for the support on chapter one, here's chapter two!_

_Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto_

——————————

By the time Naruto had placed the scroll of seals outside of his room, it was 5:30 in the morning. This both pleased and disturbed Minato. On one hand it made him happy that it took Naruto a few hours to decide on the jutsu he would choose, that means he thought hard about his choices. On the other hand the yondaime had barely gotten any sleep. The bags under his eyes were thick with exhaustion and the nightmare he had experienced replayed throughout his head.

Questions. Questions were what kept him up at night, besides the nightmares. Did he make the right choice sealing the kyuubi into Naruto? Could he have sealed the whole thing with Kushina, and not caused Naruto so much pain? Would the benefit of letting his familial relationship with Naruto be known to the public outweigh the risks? That last question is what really stumped him. On one hand, kids would be more accepting of Naruto, adults as well. He wouldn't be turned away and refused of service at nearly every restaurant and shop. He would be treated like a normal kid, which is the one thing Minato wished would happen more than anything. Even after creating numerous laws, explaining the situation to the citizens, and enforcing the idea of equality for Jinchūrikis, Naruto was still treated terribly. Looking at it from the other side of the spectrum, Naruto is nothing but a young kid. Every single one of Minatos enemies as well Konohas enemies would be after him. The proud son of the yondaime, a target in an open field.

There was still the prophecy though, that was the one thing that let Minato be at ease with himself for making his own son the Jinchūriki. He had high hopes for Naruto, and hopefully if his gut instinct was right, this great change of the shinobi world would be spear headed by his son.

Minato shook his head trying to clear the conflicting thoughts from his mind. He had to get this scroll back to his office and find a better place to keep it. If a six year old could smuggle it out, he couldn't imagine what a trained shinobi could get away with. The thought alone of what a certain snake fixated on the mastery of all jutsu could do if he got his hands on this scroll, was enough to shake him down to his core.

Using his Flying Raijin jutsu, Minato flashed up to his office on the other side of the village, silently thanking himself for learning the difficult time space jutsu. Landing in the middle of his workspace, Minato was surprisngly greeted by the proffesor himself.

Minatos eyes widened at the sight of the third hokage, "L-Lord third, what are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same question, Minato." Hiruzen responded with a teasing glint in his eyes. This, of course, went unnoticed to Minato, as his mind was too busy trying to find an excuse for being there before the sun had even risen. Especially on a day he was supposed to have off.

"Oh! Well, I was just stopping by to try and find my, um, PEN! Yes! My pen, I had left it here yesterday and I needed it for—"

"Enough Minato," Hiruzen said with a laugh cutting the blonde off, "I know your returning the scroll of seals. I noticed it gone a week ago when you had brought in Naruto, pretty ridiculous you didn't realize the boy sneaking a gigantic scroll out behind his back."

Minato internally cringed at his blunder, "Your going to have to forgive me lord third, as you know that day there was quite a few things on my plate. With it being Naruto's birthday as well as the anniversary of the kyuubi's rampage. The parade, angry citizens trying to find Naruto anywhere they could. It was safer to have him here with me."

Hiruzen bowed his head with understanding. That day was not one of konohas most memorable anniversaries. Him and Minato had petitioned to ban the "celebration" but it was to no avail, as the council had decided it was better to let the citizens "let out their frustrations" for just one day. He despised that council more than anything.

"I take it you were going to try to find a better place to keep it," Hiruzen guessed walking over to his own picture hanging on the wall, "I had this installed after a few trustworthy people turned their back on me during the third great shinobi war." Hiruzen channeled chakra through the wall, opening a secret compartment roughly the size of two desk drawers.

Minato's first reaction was to analyze the contents of this hiding place. His eyes ran over the innards finding two scrolls, a vile filled with a dark red liquid, a shinobi headband that looked worn, and a journal. His mind raced with ideas of what could be within the scrolls, what the vile contained and who's headband had the third kept that was so special to him. "You intend to keep this large of a scroll in a small compartment such as that?"

"No, well yes, but no not really." Hiruzen replied taking out one of the two scrolls and checking the name plastered on the front. He then rolled the scroll out to reveal multiple seals, but just as many blank spaces. "This scroll is insanely powerful, it can hold any object no matter the size, weight, or type. It was given to me by the first hokage's wife, Mito Uzumaki. As you know the Uzumaki clan was notorious for their sealing jutsu, it was most definitely true."

Minato listened on to Hiruzen as he described the day Mito Uzumaki had given him the scroll. Apparently, the two shared a mother and son bond, especially after the death of the first and second hokage. He was astounded at his predecessors age and experiences, he used to think it was so long ago that the first hokage had been in office but he was wrong.

After hearing his story, Minato walked over to Hiruzen and handed him the scroll of seals, apologizing for not realizing it was missing sooner. The elder Kage then sealed the scroll and placed it back into his chakra controlled cabinet.

"I'll be going now sir, Naruto is going to wake up soon and I need to prepare some things."

"Very well, I'll see you Monday. Take this time you have off with great appreciation, I fear these coming time will not allow us these luxuries." Hiruzen stated giving Minato a knowing look.

With a swift nod, Minato teleported back to his house and began working on his plans for Narutos training regimen. If he couldn't protect Naruto by being his public father, then he'd one hundred percent make it so Naruto could protect himself.

————————————

Minato thanked god that Naruto was one of those children that slept for a long time. He loved it so much.

It took Minato a few hours to prepare everything. Well, we should start back when Minato looked at the Journal Naruto had written his jutsu down in.

He sat at the dining room table of his open concept modernized house. He opened the journal and discovered Naruto had taken to writing the name of the jutsu down as well what it is supposed to do in a list form. That would be helpful, even though Minato knew most of the jutsu in the scroll, it would still be helpful to be put into the mindset of his son.

Reading the first jutsu on the list, it read:

_1\. Kage Bunshin No Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)_

_This is like the clone jutsu but like, waaaaaay cooler and there solid clones so I can win all my fights with them! _

Minato chuckled to himself while reading his sons words. It amused him that Naruto wrote in such an informal way. He would definitely need to teach him proper calligraphy if a sealing jutsu was going to be in his arsenal.

Putting Narutos funny writing aside, Minato was very pleased at his first choice. It was just what he himself had been thinking for the young fox. The normal clone jutsu was giving Naruto so much trouble, at least from what Minato could tell, because his pure amount of chakra was harder for him to control at such a small level.

This is precisely why the shadow clone would be such a good alternative for Naruto. It costs more chakra to fully sustain a shadow clone compared to a normal one. So, theoretically, it should be easier for Naruto to make a shadow clone. Not to mentioned how many useful things a shadow clone could do for the original creator. Minato, within the few seconds he had learned of his sons first choice, had already began brainstorming training methods with the shadow clones. It could be very useful.

The next jutsu on the list would be,

_2\. Water Dragon Missile _

_This one would be SOOOOOO cool!!! Imagine just shooting a water dragon at someone! _

Well, his reasonings for these jutsu were not the best, but Minato so far was pleased with his jutsu choosings. Narutos immense chakra could come in handy with water style jutsu, as long as Naruto actually had the chakra nature of water.

Minato read through the rest of the jutsu and smirks along with frowns shuffled on his face continuously. Most of these jutsu were higher level, which was expected, but there were only a few that he would be able to teach to Naruto right now. The good thing was that at least Naruto was smart enough to tailor the jutsu to specific chakra nature types. Seems like he chose water and wind. Not all of these jutsu were specifically nature based but the majority were and hopefully Naruto had a water and wind based chakra nature. If not, Minato would have to figure something else out.

Minato got back to work, crafting the perfect regimine for his son. He wouldn't force his kid to go through the suffering that comes with being a jinchuriki his whole life. If he could lessen his pain even slightly with letting his parentage be known, then he would do it in a heartbeat. But first he would have to become strong, very strong.


End file.
